News Archive

Update - April 2017

Falmouth School and its community of supporters are thrilled that the appeal for extended opening hours on the schools planned sports development has been successfully passed by the Planning Inspectorate. The planning inspector disagreed with the council’s original decision to reduce opening hours and furthermore awarded costs to the school highlighting that ‘The appellant (Falmouth School) produced robust technical evidence in the form of the Lighting Assessment and Environmental Noise Report which both demonstrated that the occupiers of neighbouring properties would not be adversely affected by the use of the 3G pitch and its floodlights in the hours proposed.’

The school had argued that community use of the facility was key and successfully applied for grant funding through the Premier League and FA Facilities Fund as a result of the positive impact the planned facility would have on the local community. Thankfully after a being under threat by reduced hours of community use, these funds are once again accessible to the school now that it has won its planning appeal for extended opening hours.

The community will benefit from the development of some amazing new sports facilities which will bring the town into the 21st century and into line with many other towns in Cornwall. In a time when austerity has cut back on publicly funded developments the school has managed to fund the project predominantly through its own resources by selling land for housing and redeveloping the former Budock Hospital site.

The sports hub will bring a full sized third generation artificial turf pitch with floodlighting facility and new grass pitches all alongside a sports pavilion with changing and gymnasium and fitness suite for the students at the school to use as well as community clubs and members of the public.

Work on the pitches on the old hospital site is now well underway and the levelled pitches are beginning to take shape. The sports fields and facilities at the school cover a vast area and standing on the middle of the fields you can really get a sense of what a positive impact this development will have on the school as the site becomes one single site which is far more accessible for everyone. The pitches will be complete by the summer in line with the planning requirements for the housing on Union Corner that is currently also under construction.

Now that the planning appeal has been allowed, work on the artificial turf pitch and pavilion will be starting imminently and the vision for a state of the art sports development will soon become a reality. Jem Wallis, Director of Sport at Falmouth School spoke of the excitement of the project reaching its next stage. “We are really excited about what this development will bring to the school and community and can’t wait until it is open for business,” he said, “The health agenda is increasingly being taken up by all age groups as people increasingly realise the importance of looking after themselves. Falmouth has a high demand but until now, very little opportunity for the community to access this sort of facility so its high time the town benefitted from such a development.”

“Things are moving on apace now for the construction of the Sports Development at Falmouth School. Thanks to everyone for their continued support throughout the construction, these are really exciting times for the town. The views from the pitches are fantastic and the scale of these facilities is second to none in the county,” he added.

Exciting update! - March 2017

Things are moving on apace now for the Sports Development at Falmouth School. Work on the pitches on the old hospital site is well underway and the levelled pitches are beginning to take shape. Standing on the middle of the fields you can really get a sense of what a positive impact this development will have on the school as the site becomes one single site which is far more accessible for everyone. The pitches will be complete by the summer in line with the planning requirements for the housing on Union Corner that is currently also well underway.

Work on the artificial turf pitch and pavilion will be starting imminently and the vision for a state of the art sports development will soon become a reality. Director of Sport at Falmouth School spoke of the excitement of the project reaching its next stage. “We are really excited about what this development will bring to the school and community and can’t wait until it is open for business,” he said.

“Thanks to everyone for their continued support throughout the construction, these are really exciting times for the school. The views on the pitches are fantastic and the scale of these facilities is second to none in the county,” he added.

Work Underway! - December 2016

Our plans for our students and community have been out in the public for quite a while now so we are thrilled to be finally starting the project that has got Falmouth buzzing. This work beginning now is the start of a really exciting phase where we will all be able to see things physically starting to happen on the school site. It will be at ground level to begin with as we first install both the grass and artificial pitches before we start on the sports pavilion. We would like to say a huge thank you to all of the support that we have received from the local community throughout this project and we are looking forward to an exciting 2017 as we begin to see elements of the project ready for use.

First Friday of the month 'drop ins' to start.

Starting from 7 October 2016 I will be holding a drop in slot for the community to come in and discuss the sports development on the first Friday of every month. Where the Fridays appear in a holiday it breaks the rule slightly so there will be no meeting in April and the June meeting will be on Friday 9 June, but otherwise the dates are fine.

The time allocated is from 11 until 12:30 and I will meet in my office. I do ask that anyone wishing to take advantage makes an appointment, but these can be made on the day if need be.